Asylum seeker who raped student in a UK cemetery replies ‘Yes, I did that. Why not?’

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The sexual predator Ishaq Al-Noor, 21, has been jailed for 16 years for raping a 17-year-old student by dragging her into a cemetery. He also attempted to rape another woman, who escaped. He will be deported after serving his sentence.

The Sudanese asylum seeker came to the UK as a refugee three years ago. He carried out “almost identical” attacks on the women in June and November last year.

When the charge of rape was put to him, Al-Noor, through his interpreter, admitted to Hull Crown Court, that he was “Guilty. Yes, I did that. Why not?” He also replied “Yes, guilty” to the attempted rape.

The victim statements were read on behalf of the women by prosecutor John Thackray. The student, just 17 at the time said:

“When he assaulted me he might as well have taken my future, my sense of self, my security, and stomped on it. It shattered my parents perspective of their little girl, something no parent should have to go through. The guilt is still with me 12 months later. The horror in my mum”s voice when she asked me through the phone ‘Has somebody hurt you?’ – it broke my heart.

“Having to sit there and recite the entire assault to a police officer in front of my parents turned me inside out. I have always been a high-achieving student. I had ambition; I knew exactly where my future was headed for.”

However, when she resumed her studies, her attendance and focus dropped. She explained she now feels paranoia and guilt and suffers sleep paralysis. “Long days and longer nights lead to self-hate”, she said, and she started to “really despise myself”.

“I hated myself with an intensity that scares me even now,” the student said. “I write letters about depression and suicide and leave them out in my room in the hope my parents would find it and see it as crying for help and get me some help.”

She now suffers anxiety around people previously she’d been comfortable with. “I’ve given up for myself completely,” she said. “For a long time I was paranoid I’d run into him.”

“It wasn’t something I did. I didn’t give consent. I didn’t even give him a reason. I made it very clear I didn’t want intercourse. I said “No”. Through his actions he conveyed the message my “No” was not important, and my body and soul were not worth the value that every human being deserves. My body was violated.”

The second woman Al-Noor tried to rape attempted to take her own life in the aftermath. She and her partner attended court to see Al-Noor jailed.

She describes the attack as “vicious” and “the closest I have been to being murdered. I don’t know how I managed to fight with him. I was intoxicated, two minutes away from safety, shouting and screaming whilst he took me off my feet.

“I was screaming ‘No! Please stop! No!’ I thought I was going to be stabbed. He threw me to the ground and dragged me to the cemetery. He didn’t say anything in the graveyard. He just forced himself on me.”

She said she felt “worthless” and “disgusting”, and thinking “If only I hadn’t gone out drinking. If only this, if only that.”

Judge Simon Jack stated during the sentencing of the sexual predator that the victims “should be very proud of themselves. We in the courts know that it is a real ordeal to go through the process of complaining about rape, and to face the prospect of having to give evidence before a group of strangers.”

“But without women who have the courage to do that we would be unable to bring people like you to justice. The two women who have complained can have the satisfaction of knowing that they have protected others from you.”

Detective Chief Inspector Craig Nicholson, of Humberside Police”s Protecting Vulnerable People Unit, said in a statement after the hearing: “The victims in this case have shown immense bravery in coming forward to report these offences to us.”